Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet - Initialise the Model

Matiu/Somes Island is a fascinating place, even more so when one understands the many intricate historical layers that give shape to the island - as it is today. After decades of isolation as a quarantine island, this island of secrets has been returned to the tangata whenua Te Atiawa, and opened to the public as a predator free reserve.

In this performance Initialise the Model, Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet transported a small audience by ferry to Matiu/Soames Island. In the islands’ historic Caretakers Cottage they delivered a ‘didactic performance’- a live dialogue between the two artists delivered in the style of a traditional education lecture. Inspired by history, science, archeology, and everyday life, the artists blend site responsive research and poetic narratives into this new performance work.

The expression ‘initialise the model’ comes from the artists’ tour of Wellington’s meteorological services. Forecasters at the MetService building in the botanical gardens use a computer generated model to predict the weather, but the model must be ‘initialised regularly’- corrected using actual observations. The performance Initialise the Model collects together research and ideas about the weather - always a nice way to start a conversation - translocation, birds, the economy, and aesthetics.